<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So Bernadette, we're gonna now go into the second hour. And the first hour, we ended up talking about Wyoming and you're starting to raise children. And that kind of... and we were talking during the break in terms of when you were a kid. And so I wanted to go back and ask about a couple stories about, you mentioned about your father and mother. And the first one, there was a story about your father with a shotgun in the house. Can you tell me that story?

BH: When we were living... my father liked sports, too, so like on New Year's Eve, he would go out and shoot his gun like everybody else at the time.

TI: And describe, what kind of gun was this?

BH: I don't know. I think some kind of a pistol, that and a few other things we had, sword and things like that, we had to give it to the police department when the war broke out. I never did see it again. They still have it, I guess.

TI: But on, like New Year's, like at midnight or something, they'd go out there and shoot a gun?

BH: Uh-huh, yeah.

TI: So that would be like fireworks.

BH: He was very Americanized as far as things that...

TI: But I think you mentioned a story where he actually shot a gun inside the house?

BH: Oh, he was just showing off when he says, he got a new rifle or something, so he says, "But don't aim at anybody," he was teaching us, and all of a sudden he shot a big hole in the floor. And so he said, "How am I gonna cover that?" The broom handle was just the right size, so he stuck in there. So that was our... [laughs]

TI: [Laughs] So let me make sure I understand this. So he's, he's kind of trying to show you gun safety --

BH: Oh, yeah, he was kind of showing off, I think.

TI: -- and so he's doing that and it accidently goes off and shoots a big hole in the floor. And when that happened, his reaction was, "It's just the right size for a broom"?

BH: Yeah, it was. The hole was enough to have that broom handle fit in there.

TI: And when that happened, was he kind of, could you tell, was he frightened about what happened?

BH: No, I guess, I guess he was glad that he wasn't aiming at anybody or anything in particular. [Laughs] Another time he had a sword, and he was, I don't know what he was doing, he was showing off or something, and he was swinging it around, and he took a big chunk out of the wall, doorframe.

TI: I'm curious, you mentioned your mother earlier as being quiet. When your father would do something like that, what was her reaction?

BH: I don't know.

TI: Did you ever see her get angry at your father?

BH: Uh-uh. No, she was very shy. She wouldn't say anything.

TI: So even though he shot a hole in the wall or in the floor --

BH: Maybe they did, but I didn't hear it. [Laughs]

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.